Google Earth is pretty cool as it is, letting users traverse the globe and see all sorts of landmarks and the like. What would make it better, though, would be to hear the sounds of the area you’re looking at. One company, Wild Sanctuary, has more than 3,500 hours of ambient sounds from all over God’s Green Earth. Collecting all those sound clips took 40 years and now the company is looking to sell to Google. The thinking is that users want to hear the sounds of Parisian streets or New York cabbies cursing at pedestrians in Farsi. Give Google Earth the coordinates and listen in on the wonderful sounds of life. Hey, I’ve heard worse ideas. Plus it gives you the chance to here places you’d have no intention of ever visiting. Anfield, anyone? (Actually, I have no idea if they’ve captured the sound of The Kop on European nights, but that I’d be willing to pay for.)
The software that powers that sound layer will be presented at the Web 2.0 conference later in the month. Do it, Google, and make it free to end-users.
Sounds bring Google Earth to life [BBC News]